Caffe sicilia noto1/26/2024 He specialized in beekeeping, learning that the most active bees produced the most intensely flavoured honey. There he met Nives, the woman who became his wife (I think she served us one morning.) In the ‘60s Corrado went to the University of Bologna where he studied agriculture. He refers to the Caffé as his playroom with his teacher, the pastry chef maestro Roberto Guisto. Closed! Now we had only two days to sample Corrado’s sweets.Ĭorrrado grew up on a citrus orchard near Noto, near enough that every day after school he went to Caffé Sicilia, which his aunt was operating at the time. In his synesthetic way, Corrado sees the flavours in his creations-wild strawberry, apricot, blood orange, pistachio, saffron, lemon-as the colours of Caffé Sicilia.įrom a distance Caffé Sicilia seemed very quiet when we arrived on a Monday afternoon. Quiet and subdued, like its owner, who shuns the limelight, preferring to let his creations to do the beckoning. Its façade of Caffé Sicilia is the antithesis of baroque. A small city with a population of around 25,000 people, after the 1693 earthquake Noto was rebuilt ten kilometres from Noto Antica and restored early this century.Ĭorrado’s great grandfather opened the Caffé on Noto’s high street in 1892. It’s also a beautiful UNESCO city, the apotheosis of Sicilian Baroque, its plazas anchored by palatial buildings in warm golden stone with carved griffins and tiers of Corinthian columns. “I knew that I was in paradise,” says Faith Willinger in the opening minutes, describing her first taste of Corrado Assenza’s aromatic, flavourful and creamy almond gelato.Ĭaffé Sicilia is the Sistine Chapel of sweets and Corrado Assenza, master craftsman and creative genius, is the Michelangelo of sweets.Ĭaffé Sicilia was the reason I booked three nights in Noto. Ingredients nourish, but don't fill you up they don't make you feel heavy, but they are satisfying, so much so that cannoli disappear in a matter of three bites, but the emotion that joins the crispy pastry and the pure ricotta cheese spreads in you (and when you think about it, cannoli, whose fragrance is due to animal fats, to lard, filled with a sheep's milk cheese, can well be an emblem of that sweet non sweet, or in this case savoury non savoury).Have you been watching the Netflix series Chef’s Table?ĭid you see Season 4 Episode 2 about Caffé Sicilia in the baroque hilltop town of Noto in southeastern Sicily? There's Corrado the father, and Francesco the son: together they discuss and learn sharing ideas is the active principle that starts the evolution and even when this becomes a “clash” (in terms of different points of view being expressed) this confrontation will always be reassured by a common ground: ingredients. There's Reiko, Francesco, Corrado and Corrado. But even more it's a place of sharing, of living and working together: everyone is committed, working with and to support one another. The laboratory is a scented labyrinth, a place for laborare par excellence, a lab for thoughts too, where Nature is transformed and preserved. They simply opened the doors, the most natural gesture of all, and started exactly from where they had all left: at the heart of their work. It's not a coincidence that there's been no opening event. So if you expect innovation, you might be disappointed if you're looking for novelty, better go somewhere else: Caffè Sicilia is the present of an ongoing story, a corridor that communicates between what was, and what will continue to be. And we've included a clearing station which allows more freedom of movement for the team at Caffè: less obstacles also means more quality time with the guests to express themselves and offer their welcome». For instance, we've managed to create a new space to make and preserve gelato. Necessary structural works which, more than anything, have a beneficial impact on the management of our daily work, which is much smoother now. But Corrado Papa (his close friend and the architect who managed the works and the artisans involved in the project) and I knew well what was urgent at Caffè: we just looked into each other's eyes and decided to start. «When we decided to close to improve – he explains – we still didn't have a written project. His Caffè Sicilia is back, always in Corso Vittorio Emanuele, Noto's main street. He's wearing the white uniform of his beloved profession while passers-by give him their most sincere best wishes. His hair is a little longer than usual, his eyes are focused and intense, like a coffee bean.
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